For a lot of us, time in the car with our children predominantly revolves around keeping them quiet so we can actually focus on the road. But as they get older, and learning to drive becomes a considerable expense, we might try to find ways to cut financial corners. As such, teaching our children to drive can seem like a logical option. After all, we've already got a car, and we can save lots of money on driving lessons. But it's not just about the financial aspect! Should we actually teach our children to drive or is this just a recipe for disaster?

Know Where Your Experience Lies
That's not to say you should completely go off the idea of teaching your children to drive but there are so many other aspects of driving where you are an expert even if you can’t actually teach them. Buying a car is something that you can help them with, and rather than having to buy the vehicle for them, it's beneficial to stand back so you can point them in the right direction as to whether the car they want is safe or not. It's worth going to a used dealership, like Hogg Motor Co., so you can see if there is anything around for cheap. Even if you decide against teaching your children to drive you can still have a hand in helping them buy the car.

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Learning To Keep Calm
If you decide to teach your children to drive, keeping calm is crucial. If you passed your test a long time ago, you've got to make the effort to research what it's like taking a driving test today. You also have to think about your own driving habits. Because if you don't keep calm behind the wheel, or you are someone prone to road rage, you've got to figure out how these habits will affect your children indirectly. Remember what it was like when you were learning to drive and how stressful it was; this may give you some sense of perspective!

Assess The Relationship Between The Two Of You
Some people rub each other up the wrong way, especially in stressful situations, and learning to drive is completely stressful! You may go in with the best of intentions, but if your child stalls the vehicle too many times, so you feel your pressure gauge rising, you could put them off driving for life! Sometimes it's better to pay for lessons because instructors know what they're doing, but also have a specific way of teaching. If we don't know what type of teacher we are, then we could become this strict authoritarian, which doesn't help our children to develop their own skills behind the wheel.

Should we teach our children to drive? It all depends on where we are coming from. If you think it's better because it's cheaper then you may be letting yourself in for more more than you can handle. In many ways, learning to drive with a parent isn't just about the skills we learn behind the wheel but it can say a lot about the relationship that we have as parent and child.

*This post was written in collaboration with a third party, the words expressed are my own"